Live from Taiwan: Cebit 2006 Preview
by Wesley Fink on March 7, 2006 12:03 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
AM2 Motherboards
All of the Tier 1 players will be showing at least one AM2 board, and some will have several on display, but not running.Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe
The upcoming Asus AM2 board based on the NVIDIA chipsets looks very much like the current A8N32-SLI Deluxe. Asus also plans an upper end ATI RD-580 board at launch.
ECS KA3-MVP & KN3-SLI2
ECS was the only Tier 1 manufacturer showing a working ATI RD580 motherboard for Socket AM2, which will be called the KA3-MVP.
ECS also had a working dual x16 SLI motherboard based on new NVIDIA chipsets. It is called the KN3-SLI2.
Gigabyte K8NDSLI PRO
Gigabyte was also showing an NVIDIA chipset based AM2 board. The Gigabyte board being shown appears to be a dual x8 solution based on the single NVIDIA chipset.
You will also likely see an ATI RD580 AM2 board from Gigabyte.
MSI K9N Platinum
MSI was showing both high-end and low-end AM2 boards. The K9N Platinum is a dual x8 NVIDIA SLI board.
There was also a smaller, cheaper MSI AM2 based on the recently released Ultra chipset.
You will also see an ATI RD580 AM2 at the launch of the new AMD chip in about 3 months.
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Dubb - Tuesday, March 7, 2006 - link
any news on workstation motherboards?Wesley Fink - Tuesday, March 7, 2006 - link
We did see a Socket F design on our last day in Taiwan, but manufacturers were not as far along with Socket F boards as AM2 designs. You will want to review other Cebit coverage to see who might be displaying new workstation designs.neweggster - Tuesday, March 7, 2006 - link
The AM2 boards pictured all are using a passive heatsinks on the chipsets. Does this mean something about the new AM2's that they run cooler or whats the deal? All the major AM2 boards shown all have passive cooling, and for how much they will sell for $200+ I doubt I would want one without a nice heatsink fan configuration for OC'ing.JackPack - Tuesday, March 7, 2006 - link
I doubt processor power consumption has much influence on the chipset.Fancy fansinks on the chipset are the probably the last detail the manufacturers are concerned with. They can finalize those designs at the last minute.
JoKeRr - Tuesday, March 7, 2006 - link
Same pic as Asus AM2 moboWesley Fink - Tuesday, March 7, 2006 - link
The Abit KN9 links were correctedJoKeRr - Tuesday, March 7, 2006 - link
Is it just me or does someone else doesn't see the second MCP on that K9N Platinum board?? Supposed to be Dual X16 and I'm not aware of any single MCP made by NV that supports 32 PCI-E lanes.Wesley Fink - Tuesday, March 7, 2006 - link
Good Catch. The MSI is definitely dual x8 and not dual x16. The text has been updated. nVidia will have a single chip dual x16 PCIe chipset late this year, but not for AM2 launch.JoKeRr - Tuesday, March 7, 2006 - link
thanks for the corrections Wesley. Interesting to note that MSI has only 1 SLI-32X mobo and it's K8N Dimond Plus, I guess they're reserving the dimond naming scheme for the single 32X MCP solution.Powermoloch - Tuesday, March 7, 2006 - link
The new 7xxx cards are lookin' mighty fine :D